I sort of observed the same thing in my all day test of an F30 in SoCal a month ago, the climate system did not adapt to the changing coastal temps on the PCH nearly as fast as I would have liked and I did not notice much, if any, change in the fan speed. With my Audi if you get into the car and the cabin is warm the AC will come on extremely aggressively for several minutes to clear the cabin of hot air, with no driver intervention necessary.

Yeah, three BMWs and never had one where the HVAC could keep up with SoCal temperature changes on the same drive. If you figure 1 degree higher per mile inland and you start at the coast, within 4-5 miles the AC should react. Never really did. It was a small pet peeve but even my cheapo Mazda3's automatic climate control is more responsive than anything I've had in a BMW.